Embalmed vision

Abstract

This paper presents the history and theory of nineteenth century preservation technologies that mechanically altered the human corpse. By theorizing the socio-historical affects of those technologies, the production of entirely new postmortem conditions for all dead bodies are suggested. These technologies of preservation effectively invented the modern corpse; transforming the dead body into something new: a photographic image, a train passenger, a dead body that looked alive. All of these technological innovations are matched by the emergence of an early twentieth century funeral industry that turned the preserved human corpse into a dead body that was atemporal. Once the human corpse could exist outside of the normal biological time that controlled the body's decomposition, it became a well-suited subject for unfettered public display. Dead bodies emerge in this paper as the products of nineteenth century human technologies that created a kind of embalmed vision that we living humans still use today, albeit without noticing, when looking at death.

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